Bugonia

The Premise & Setup

The film is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and is an English‑language remake of the 2003 South Korean cult film Save the Green Planet!. Wikipedia+2Wikipedia+2
The story begins with:

• Emma Stone plays Michelle Fuller, a powerful CEO of the pharmaceutical company Auxolith. Wikipedia+1
• Jesse Plemons plays Teddy Gatz, a beekeeper and low‑level employee (or ex‑employee) who becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories. Roger Ebert+1
• Teddy’s intellectually disabled cousin Don is his accomplice. Wikipedia+1

Teddy believes that Michelle is not human but an alien from an Andromedan species. He alleges she and her company are destroying the world — particularly bees and human autonomy. Wikipedia+1
They abduct Michelle (kidnap her), shave her head (which in their logic prevents her from sending alien signals), chain her in a basement and attempt to force her to confess to being alien and to stop her evil plan. Roger Ebert+1

The Middle: Conflict & Interrogation

Once Michelle is in captivity, the bulk of the film explores the power dynamics between captor and captive, and between conspiracy belief and corporate power:

• Teddy and Don interrogate Michelle, torture her (electroshock, etc) to get a confession. Wikipedia+1
• Flashbacks reveal Teddy’s mother Sandy (played by Alicia Silverstone) underwent a clinical trial by Auxolith, resulting in her comatose state. This underlies Teddy’s hatred and suspicion of Michelle’s company. Herzindagi+1
• Michelle, even while captive, begins to turn the tables: she manipulates, argues, tries to twist Teddy’s perspective. The film plays with whether she is human or alien, and whether Teddy is deluded, or whether there is something to his beliefs.

Themes

Some of the key thematic threads:

• Corporate power vs the individual: Michelle embodies ruthless corporate ambition; Teddy is a victim (beekeeper, employee) who is ignored by systems.
• Conspiracy and belief: The film asks: what happens when people feel powerless in the face of massive systems (pharma, capitalism, environmental collapse)? Does that push them into conspiratorial thinking? “He can’t understand how Michelle can be so horrible without being an alien, because he cannot fathom that level of evil unless it comes from outer space.” Reddit
• Alienation & humanity: The idea of alienness works both literally and metaphorically (is Michelle alien? Are humans alien to themselves?).
• Nature & extinction: Bees, environmental destruction, the decline of the natural world surfacing underlying anxiety.

The Ending & Twist

Spoilers ahead.
Toward the end:

• Teddy convinces Michelle to take him to her office under threat (Teddy reveals he’s wearing a suicide vest). Wikipedia+1
• In a dramatic climax, Michelle instructs Teddy to enter a “teleporter” closet at her office; when he does, his bomb detonates (killing Teddy) and Michelle seemingly teleports away. Herzindagi+1
• The final scene reveals that Michelle is the Empress of the Andromedan aliens. She judges humanity’s experiment to have failed, and thus unleashes a catastrophic final act: humanity is wiped out (via some alien mechanism) and only bees begin to repopulate nature. Wikipedia+1

So while the film starts as a hostage thriller, it ends in cosmic horror: the conspiracist was right and catastrophically too late.

Why the Title “Bugonia”?

The term bugonia (or bougonia) refers to an ancient ritual belief that bees could be born from the carcass of an ox. Reddit
In the film, bees, extinction, rebirth of nature, and corporate death all interlink: the title serves as metaphor for emergence (of conspiracy, of nature, of judgment).

What to Watch Out For

• The film is dark, violent, and disturbing. One viewer writes: “It has a suicide in it and the overall theme is very nihilistic.” Reddit
• The tone swings between black comedy, sci‑fi horror, and absurdism. It’s not light entertainment.
• The message is ambiguous: Are the aliens good, evil, or indifferent? Is Teddy’s conspiracy justified? The film leaves many moral judgments open to interpretation.

In Summary

Bugonia is a weird, unsettling, but thought‑provoking film about power, belief, environment and alienation. It begins with a kidnapping setup but ends by questioning what humans really are, whether conspiracy may hold kernels of truth, and what happens when nature fights back.

If you like dark, surreal films with a mix of satire, horror and sci‑fi, this one will appeal. If you prefer straightforward plots or uplifting endings, this might be challenging.